Jennie+Mallard

On January 16, 1901, 20-year-old Jennie Mallard died at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Chicago from an abortion performed several weeks earlier. She signed a statement about three hours later incriminating Dr. Margaret Simmons, who was arrested and held in the death. Simmons would neither confirm nor deny the allegation.

Simmons' profession is listed as [|nurse or midwife]in the Homicide in Chicago database, but at that time and in that place, female obstetricians were often referred to as midwives. On the 1900 Census, she is listed as a physician.

The Cook County Coroner's Inquest Index gives Jennie's name as Jane M. Mollard. I will be doing more research as resources become available.

Note, please, that with issues common public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see [|Abortion Deaths 1900-1909].

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion]

Sources:
 * [|Homicide in Chicago Interactive]
 * "Woman Physician is Held," //Chicago Tribune//, January 17, 1901

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